Architecture of the Sterling Integrator

 

Sterling Integrator, now known as IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, is a comprehensive integration platform designed to manage complex business processes and facilitate seamless communication between different systems. Here's a high-level overview of its architecture:

1. Core Components:

• Integration Server: This is the heart of Sterling Integrator. It handles the execution of integration processes, including message transformation, routing, and protocol handling.

• Business Process Manager (BPM): The BPM component enables the design, execution, and management of business processes. It supports the orchestration of various tasks and processes, ensuring that business operations are automated and streamlined.

• Business Transaction Management (BTM): BTM tracks and manages the flow of transactions through the system. It provides visibility into transaction status, performance metrics, and error handling.

• Adapter Framework: Sterling Integrator supports a wide range of adapters that allow integration with various external systems and applications. Adapters handle the communication and data exchange between Sterling Integrator and other systems.

• Data Transformation: The platform includes tools for transforming data between different formats and protocols. This includes mapping and translation capabilities to ensure that data can be accurately and efficiently processed.

• Trading Partner Management: This component manages relationships with trading partners, including onboarding, configuration, and monitoring. It facilitates secure and compliant interactions with external parties.

2. Deployment Architecture:

• Single Server Deployment: In a basic setup, all components are installed on a single server. This is typically used for small-scale deployments or development environments.

• Distributed Deployment: For larger or more complex environments, components can be distributed across multiple servers. This architecture allows for better scalability, load balancing, and fault tolerance.

• Clustered Deployment: Clustering involves running multiple instances of Sterling Integrator components in a coordinated manner. This enhances performance, reliability, and high availability by distributing workloads and providing redundancy.

3. Integration Patterns:

• Point-to-Point Integration: Direct connections between systems. While simple, this approach can become complex and hard to manage as the number of connections grows.

• Hub-and-Spoke: A central hub (Sterling Integrator) connects to various external systems (spokes). This simplifies management and reduces the number of direct connections needed.

• Bus Architecture: A more advanced pattern where Sterling Integrator acts as a central bus that routes messages and data between various systems and applications.
  
  Below is simple Sterling Integrator Architecture :
  
  

  
  
  
  
  Above picture illustrate the simple example of the application where application is installed on the App Server and connecting to the Database Server.
  Layers above showing the some function of the application like Web Based GUI is available for the application administration and configuring some services like HTTP/s,SFTP,FTP/s,Connect Direct and others.
  Where the firewall configured for the connection from the outside world.
• End users like partners or third party can connect to the application services.